Administering Date Periods

This article explains how to set up date periods in administration.

Overview

In order to enter a labor or financial forecast or actual for a time period, there must be a definition for that time period in the system and in the database. ResourceFirst comes preloaded with periods defined for a range of past and future periods at each level of granularity (Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Half, and Year).

There are many reasons to make changes to period definitions:

1) Configuring fiscal periods, including the name, and start and end dates of these periods

2) Adding additional time periods as time passes

3) Customizing period names for display on pages that show period data

4) Configuring time periods for timesheet entry (by setting specific weeks to active or inactive)

5) Defining Sprint dates for Agile projects

How To

Edit Existing Periods

Step 1: To set up date periods, click Administration > System >Periods:

Step 2: Specify the period granularity and date range you want to work on and click the (re) load icon.

Step 3: Edit the periods you want to modify.

You must edit each granularity (type) separately. For example, weeks are defined independently of months, quarters, etc. Also, Sprints can be defined for Agile work.

The system automatically determines how many business days are in each period.

Enter a value in the Name field if you want to display anything other than the simple date, e.g. “1/1/2000″. That way 1/1/2023 could be made to display in period headers as ˜January” or “Jan”.

Adding Periods

Export / Import: If your are going to enter many periods or edit many  names or lock many periods, the recommended method is to export an MS Excel spreadsheet, modify it, and then import it using the export/import icons at the top of the Periods page.

However, you can use on-screen controls to create new periods.

Step 1: Click the “+” icon in the upper left to add a new period.

A new row is created at the top of the period table.

Start Date

End Date

Period Name: If there is no value in the name field for a period, the system uses the date of the first day in the period as the name.

Active

Locked

Year

Number (sequential number within the selected granularity)

Step 2: Once the periods are entered, set periods as Active or Locked as needed.

Active:
– Only applies to Weekly periods that are used for timesheets; While this column shows when you load Month, Quarter, Half, Year, and Sprint period types, it has no effect except on Timetracking.

– Use: When checked, the weekly period appears on the Time>Track page as an available weekly time period for time tracking. When un-checked, the weekly period does not appear and a timesheet cannot be submitted. This applies to timesheets in all status states.

An example when a Weekly time period is un-checked: Let’s say we are in March 2023, and, as normal business process, the previous quarter time periods are deactivated. A project manager finds a time entry mistake back in November 2022. The resource is asked to correct that timesheet. They go to Time>Track and look for that weekly time period. They will not find that time period because that time period is deactivated. To make the adjustment, the Admin will activate the time period, and then the resource will make an adjustment to the timesheet and submit it for approval. Once the timesheet is approved, that weekly time period can be deactivated.

[Note: The active/inactive flag has no impact on direct entry of actuals on Assignments pages, only on timesheets.]

Locked:
– Applies to all time period types.

– Use: When checked, that time period is locked and prevents period data entry for that time period. This applies to all period entry pages such as Labor and Financial assignment pages.

Creating Fiscal Periods such as 4-4-5

To create a 4-4-5 fiscal year:

• Select Months.
• For each month, enter the Start date and the End date for each month following the 4-4-5 weekly pattern.
• Optional: Update the month’s name if you would rather see a fiscal style label.

Special Note: Importing Periods

Caution: When importing periods, the “Active” field defaults to FALSE if it’s not included in the import source.

Recommendation: Always include the Active field in period import source files.

This allows you to activate and lock periods in the Excel spreadsheet prior to import.